By Brandon Brady

J. Bennett’s “What Lasts Are”

It's actress Nicole Kidman, not artist Georgia O'Keefe, who is displayed prominently in Room 207 of the Art Academy of Cincinnati's Eden Park building. Not her baby blues and long tresses. What's piqued the interest of professors Jane Merks and Peter Bartl. is the title of Kidman's latest film, Birthday Girl.

Bartl calls attention to title's lettering on the poster, in particular, to the letter "L." While most of the typography uses Russian-styled lettering (a nod to the nationality of Kidman's character), the "L" is fashioned as a handgun tilted upright. Bartl says this artistic choice indicates a darker, more foreboding tone than the title itself might suggest.

That way of looking at words and letters is the inspiration for 02txt: a celebration of the visual word, a collection of three exhibits that fill the Art Academy's Chidlaw Gallery, Exo Gallery and Lobby through March 8.

Exopressions features projects from eight different schools. Celebrating the visual word is a juried exhibition of visual poetry, while oh, what a relief it is! specializes in letterpress, the near-extinct form of printing popular before computers changed the world.

"A lot of it is looking at life a different way," says Merks, who serves as the exhibition's co-curator along with Bartl.

Those used to working in a particular medium get a chance to spread their creative wings. Poets, whose works typically aren't found on gallery walls, can give their writing new levels of meaning. "It tends to be writers who want their work to be visual, as well as oral," Merks says.

It's also a perk for gallery-goers. "The reader or viewer gets to interpret quite differently than if it's a poem written in ordinary text," Merks offers.

Though people of different creative disciplines have gravitated toward 02txt, the show is as much for audiences as for the artists involved. Merks says, "We want people to look at words differently."

E-mail Brandon Brady

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